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It’s a start.

Posted by Scott Tribe on September 27, 2007, at 1:58 pm |

A H/T to Jim Calder of the Progressive Right for finding this story; John Tory on the picking of list candidates in the National Post:

The Conservative leader went on to say that if the referendum passes, his party will likely find a democratic way to develop its list of candidates. “The history of our party is that the party insists on choosing its candidates democratically. Even the notion that the leader would appoint candidates is something that has been not well received when it’s come up.”

Its not an iron-clad commitment to pick democratically, but I applaud Mr. Tory for saying this much; its much better then what was being said by him a couple of days ago. He is correct in that it would be nice to hear Premier McGuinty’s thought on the electoral reform being proposed, as well as the way the Liberal list candidates will be chosen.

5 comments to It’s a start.

The PC’s and Libs are the beneficiaries of FTPT? Liberals outside Toronto have not been the beneficiaries, even in 2003, and certainly not earlier.
John Gerretsen was the first Liberal MPP (on the public record at least) to favour MMP, back in 1995, when he was the only Liberal elected between Toronto and Ottawa, although there were 137,000 Liberal voters in those ridings. He looked at that, and he looked at Mike Harris across the floor with his big majority (elected by 45% of the voters) and said "we need the German voting system" which, having grown up in the Netherlands, he had seen next door.
But even in 2003, people talk about PC voters having elected no one in Toronto, which is true. That was 223,942 PC voters in those 22 ridings. But there were 500,950 Liberal voters in 28 ridings outside Toronto who also elected no one. A lot worse.

They don’t mind assuming power with 40% of the vote and they’re the ones who set a 60% threshold required to pass MMP. The PC’s and Libs are the beneficiaries of our outdated and disproportional FPTP system. They have little incentive to back MMP and much incentive to work against it. Working against it can be as simple as never bringing it up. The public remains largely unaware and uneducated on the issue. An election campaign would afford the perfect opportunity for politicians to explain the proposal to the public. Notwithstanding Tory’s smart positioning on the list issue, the whole referendum has been a non-issue in the election. Other big non-issue: the environment.

"Maybe they don’t want any voting reform". Well, that’s clearly not true for the NDP or Greens, but for McGuinty and Tory it’s the understatement of the week. Why give up a system that gives you majority power with less than 50% of the vote? Politicians giving up power? I won’t hold my breath! I give McGunity a bit of credit for even gettingthe ball rolling here. But just a bit.

At least one can say John Tory is showing a little leadership on this issue. Which is more than you can say for Hampton and the premier. I doubt the referendum has a prayer unless the leaders get behind it and shove. No sign of that yet. Maybe they don'w want any voting reform.